PASSAGES: Brosnan to Do a Fifth Bond

AGREED: Pierce Brosnan has committed to do a fifth James Bond movie for producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson, reports Variety columnist Army Archerd. "The invitation has been accepted," says Brosnan, 49. The next Bond picture, which hasn't been written, probably will not start filming until early 2005, according to the trade paper. The current 007 adventure, "Die Another Day," costarring Halle Berry, opens Nov. 22.

TREATED: Veteran actor Robert Stack, 83, is undergoing outpatient radiation treatment for prostate cancer, his publicist tells the Associated Press. Stack, who started playing handsome teen boyfriend roles at MGM in the '40s, rose to prominence in the '60s when he played crimefighter Eliot Ness on TV's "The Untouchables" and then, later, as host of the NBC reality show "Unsolved Mysteries."

ADMITTED: "Stripped" singing star Christina Aguilera, 21, was not permitted to get her ears pierced when she was a little girl, but now she has some 11 piercings (in every place one could imagine), she tells Rolling Stone. Aguilera reveals she started getting piercings when she was on tour after her first album. "If I was having a bad day, or if something was really getting me down -- boy troubles, whatever -- I wanted to go out and get a new piercing," Aguilera tells the magazine. "It was definitely a release for me. Something that made me feel a little more strong or empowered. Because it was something that had to do with me and no one else."

OBSERVED: Steven Spielberg, visiting Cuba for the first time on Monday, said the U.S. should end its 40-year trade embargo against the communist-run island and allow more cultural interaction with Cubans, Reuters reports. He is there on a cultural mission. "I personally feel that this embargo should be lifted. I do not see any reason for accepting old grudges being played out in the 21st Century," Spielberg, 56, said at a news conference. "It does not make sense to me that my country will trade with North Korea and China, but not with Cuba."

ACCUSED: Five men arrested Saturday night in connection with an alleged plot to kidnap Victoria Beckham, the Spice Girl wife of England soccer captain David Beckham, appeared in a London court Monday on unrelated charges of allegedly stealing a valuable jeweled turban from Sotheby's auction house, Reuters reports. The Five men are Azem Krifsha, 30 a Kosovan living in London; Joseph Rivas, 24 from London; Rusu Sorin, 31, a Romanian living in London; Adrian Razvan Pasareanu, 28, a Romanian living in Morden, south London and Alin Turcu, 18, a Romanian living near London.

MOURNED:Jonathan Harris, 87, who portrayed the foppish villain Dr. Zachary Smith on the 1965-68 CBS sci-fi show "Lost in Space," died in Southern California Sunday from a blood clot in his heart while receiving therapy for a chronic back problem, a family spokesman tells the Associated Press. Born Jonathan Charasuchin in the Bronx to Russian-Jewish immigrant parents, Harris adopted the stage persona of a classically trained British actor. In recent years he supplied the voices of Manny, the preying-mantis magician in "A Bug's Life," and of the elderly doll repairman in "Toy Story 2."